Feb. 15, 2007 - Vietnam has plans to invest 95.5 trillion Vietnamese dong (VND) (nearly US$6 billion) into the development of its pulp and paper industry between now and 2020 as part of an Industry Ministry plan, Vietnam News reported yesterday.

From that total investment, 87 trillion VND (approx. US$5.4 billion) will be used to build more pulp and paper mills; 7.9 trillion VND (approx. US$494 million) to establish forest plantations, and the remainder to be applied to other paper industry-related work.

According to the report, the planned investment will allow Vietnam to produce 600,000 tons of pulp in 2010 and steadily increase annual capacity to 1.8 million tons in 2020—a figure that should satisfy 70 percent of the domestic demand for raw material in 2020.

Vietnam currently has some 300 paper manufacturers, but significantly less pulp producers. The pulp-makers only meet 37 percent of the domestic demand, according to the Vietnam Pulp and Paper Association. The Association said the country must import 130,000-150,000 tons per year of pulp .

The Vietnamese Trade Ministry predicts Vietnam will produce 1.13 million tons of paper—from printing and writing papers to packaging grades, and will import of 914,500 tons of paper, mostly specialty grades, in 2007.